Editor’s note: This article was first published in May 2012. Several of these services have since closed, changed or been discontinued, for example BranchOut, SlideRocket and LinkedIn’s Resume Builder, and the status of each tool should be checked. The description of Facebook’s timeline reflects the platform in 2012.
There are plenty of job portals where you can post your job application. They are structured tools, though, and they won’t let you step outside their set fields when you enter your details.
Meanwhile, social networks keep spreading and becoming part of our everyday lives. Not for nothing, there is an open debate about companies using social networks as engines for finding jobs and candidates.
New applications and tools are emerging in this space where you can post your résumé and promote it, while Word and PDF versions are increasingly giving way to formats that belong to the new technologies.
Some examples:
VisualCV is the most popular tool for creating your résumé. It’s easy to use, intuitive, quick and nimble, and it offers a range of templates to suit all the tastes and needs of its users. It is especially well suited if you are targeting the English-speaking world.
In Latin America there’s empleo.com, one of the most popular platforms in that part of the world. It lets you put together an organized professional presentation that can be shared on LinkedIn. A newer feature is its own job board, through which large companies in the region look for their ideal candidates.
StudioVox is aimed especially at people who want to show off their skills with every multimedia tool available. It is a professional social network that lets you upload video, audio, infographics and other content to build an interactive résumé, where creativity opens the door at every level.
LinkedIn Resume Builder is a feature developed by LinkedIn that is closely tied to the traditional world of human resources. The application gathers the variable details of your résumé and adapts them to Word-like formats; you can work in that format and export it to other popular promotional tools.
ResumUP is only accessible through social networks such as Facebook or LinkedIn, and its business goal is to professionalize the candidate’s social profile. ResumUP lets you enrich each experience without changing the details shown, combining professional experience with other interests of the candidate that may be relevant to their future.
Zerply is one of those sites that allow more interactivity in presenting a candidate’s professional experience. The tool includes everything you need to follow other people and analyze visit statistics and other content.
ResumeBear is useful for tracking, in real time, how much attention a job application is getting online. The tool also lets you find out who has read the résumés you’ve sent and get in touch with employers who are interested in you.
ResumeBaking is the most complete option on the market, with links to the most widely used platforms today. It includes the usual notifications, templates and statistics.
BranchOut is a network that lets you create a flexible, dynamic profile that can hold everything users want to include and highlight the items that matter most to them as the profile’s creator.
SlideRocket is a site with an educational purpose that shows you how to create an excellent cover letter for a potential employer. The tool lets you add photos, animations, audio and other content to present yourself as a candidate with originality and creativity.
Facebook, the most popular social network, although not created for this purpose, has become one of the easiest ways to illustrate a candidate’s personal path. Its timeline format offers a logical way to show the user’s most important milestones, from their start in education to their previous personal and work experience, depending on how complete the profile is.
Further reading
Featured image: Sylvain Kalache from San Francisco, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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